China Keeps Sweep In-Tact; Americans Get Second Medal in Men’s Platform Synchro

The second diving event is in the books, and the same storylines continue after the men’s synchronized 10-meter platform.

The Chinese, entering a pair of divers on their first Olympic appearance, remained perfect with a second gold medal. The pair of Cao Yun and Zhang Yanquan used a huge final dive score of 99.36, by far the highest score of the meet, to seal a victory with 486.78 points. Though the final result was an 18-point margin of victory, the Chinese were for a time vulnerable in this – their weakest event if there were one.

That final dive, a back 2 1/2 somersaults with 2 1/2 twists was executed very well with an average judges score of 9.2.

The Chinese took this victory despite eschewing the sport’s newest challenge: a 4 1/2 that during the 2008 Olympics was thought to be unrealistic, but now carries one of the heaviest degrees of difficulty in the sport.

The Americans and Brits, two programs that are becoming well-known in these synchro events for their solid execution in the mandated, low difficulty first two dives, stood in the medals halfway through the event’s 6 rounds.

But then the Mexicans unleashed their 4 1/2’s Their first, in round three, didn’t pay off with a big score (a standard 4 1/2 somersault). But their second dive, an even more difficult inward 4 1/2 (facing the platform) received a big score of 95.94 – the second-best dive of the whole competition.

The pair of Ivan Garcia and German Sanchez were the only pair to attempt two 4 1/2’s, and the only pair to attempt a dive with a degree of difficulty greater than 4.0. The risks paid-off though, as they were able to recover from an inconspicuous start to take silver.

The Americans remained in 3rd-place throughout most of this event, and ultimately would earn a bronze medal. David Boudia and Nick McCrory joined their female counterparts from Sunday’s 3-meter synchro competition with diving medals; after two-straight Olympics without a medal, the Americans stand 2-for-2 in London.

The British pair of Tom Daley (one of Britain’s biggest sporting stars) and Peter Waterfield were 4th, 9 points behind the Americans. They had a big opportunity on the 5th round, where the Americans earned just 8.5’s on a relatively easy dive, but couldn’t capitalize.

Full results below, and to see dive-by-dive outcomes check out this link:

Rank	Nation	Dives						Total
		1	2	3	4	5	6
	China Cao Yuan Zhang Yanquan	56.40	55.80	89.28	93.06	92.88	99.36	486.78
	Mexico Iván García Germán Sánchez	51.60	50.40	87.69	95.94	92.07	91.20	468.90
	United States David Boudia Nicholas McCrory	54.60	54.00	82.56	92.13	85.14	95.04	463.47
4	Great Britain Tom Daley Peter Waterfield	56.40	56.40	91.08	71.28	87.69	91.80	454.65
5	Cuba Jeinkler Aguirre José Guerra	54.00	51.60	81.60	80.64	89.10	93.96	450.90
6	Russia Ilya Zakharov Victor Minibaev	52.20	52.80	84.48	84.15	88.56	87.69	449.88
7	Germany Patrick Hausding Sascha Klein	52.80	54.00	84.48	78.84	84.15	91.80	446.07
8	Ukraine Oleksandr Gorshkovozov Oleksandr Bondar	52.20	51.00	83.16	75.60	82.56	88.80	433.32